Cornell President Hunter Rawlings and Provost Biddy Martin today (Dec. 20) issued the following statement on the status of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning:

"Based on the extensive conversations that have taken place with the College of Architecture, Art and Planning and its several constituencies over the last several months, we do not recommend the dissolution of the College as it is presently configured. However, the highest priority in the weeks and months ahead must be given to the tasks of significantly enhancing the intellectual definition of the College, reviewing its curriculum and developing a permanent solution to its ongoing budgetary problems.

"The provost and I, along with many faculty of the College, believe that the concepts of 'design and the built environment' should serve as the intellectual core of the College's activities. To accomplish this objective, the provost will immediately appoint a faculty committee, composed of faculty from both inside and outside the College, and charge them with developing a strategic intellectual plan for the College, to be organized around the core concept of 'the built environment.' Similarly, she will appoint a separate faculty committee, composed of faculty from both inside and outside the College, charged with developing proposals for shared curricular requirements and/or joint course offerings.

"We encourage the new faculty committees to collaborate with each other and to consider a range of options that will ensure that the College develops a coherent intellectual focus that will shape hiring and educational priorities in a context of limited resources. Vice Provost Walter I. Cohen will work closely with these committees and with Dean Porus Olpadwala in the months ahead on both the academic and budgetary decisions that must be made. We expect initial plans from each committee by March 1, 2003, and we suggest to the committees that the College offer at least one required core course to all its students beginning in Fall 2003.

"We wish to reiterate our appreciation for the many thoughtful recommendations that we have received from the faculty, students, staff and alumni of the College, as well as from its many friends throughout the world. Those communications have, in many ways, reinforced our view that there is much to be gained from a rededication of the College to an interdisciplinary focus on design and the built environment."